


The Deal

by MeredithBrody



Category: Designated Survivor (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 16:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13884567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: Seth and Aaron make a deal to ask out the women they have a crush on.





	The Deal

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to the anon on Tumblr who sent me this prompt. I hope this is what you were thinking of!

Seth couldn’t help but follow where Aaron’s gaze was stuck and there was a part of him that couldn’t believe how hard his friend had fallen, probably without even realising it. Hannah Wells had been the object of Aaron’s quiet affections for a month now, since they were in Cuba. Seth had honestly expected him to be over it by now. “Man are you still pining after her?” He asked quietly, bringing Aaron’s attention to the fact he was there. Aaron jumped almost a foot in the air then span around to face Seth with an embarrassed look on his face.

“Yeah like you can talk!!! How long have you had a crush on Kendra for?” Aaron immediately jumped in, and there was a part of Seth that instantly regretted that he’d told his friend about that. Also that he was right, Seth still had a crush on her, despite everything else that had gone on. “She’s been working here for eight months, three weeks and four days so I’m going to guess eight months, three weeks, three days and about eleven hours.”

“I tried to get over it!” Seth defended himself, and he really had. There was a part of him that had thought when he first met Kendra that he shouldn’t have felt so instantly attached and attracted, so of course he’d tried to deflect it. It hadn’t been that successful but he’d tried and he felt like that should be recognised.

“Oh yeah, because dating your boss who then treated you terribly is _exactly_ the best way to get over a crush on a different colleague. Stupid.” Aaron was correct on all of that, especially about the fact that he was stupid about it too. Despite all of Seth’s thoughts about Emily, she had not been a great choice and he’d thought that he cared for her, but he’d soon realised that it was more dependency than any kind of romantic or platonic feelings for her. “Feel like I had a lucky escape there.” Aaron said quietly, reminding Seth that he wasn’t the first one that Emily had thrown herself at either. Yes, he was much better out of that mess.

“I would disagree if I could.” He admitted. Every time someone reminded him that Emily had strung him along he was embarrassed again, but he was determined to move past it. He’d been the one to say she should tell him when she was ready. He was happy that she’d never been ready. “What about you? You’ve had a thing for Agent Wells for weeks.”

“At least mine is only weeks.” Aaron shot back, but Seth wasn’t letting him make this about his crush on Kendra Daynes again. He stayed silent and just looked at him, hoping that it would make Aaron say something else about the situation. “I’m her boss, just like Emily is yours.”

“Technically, the President is her boss. He just delegates it to you and Kendra.” Seth pointed out, the senior staff all knew Hannah’s weird assignment to the White House, and it was something that Seth knew had some uncomfortable. “You could pass it all on to Kendra, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.” Seth just wanted his friend to be happy, and he couldn’t help but think that maybe they both needed to take a chance. “Do you wonder if maybe this is our shot to be happy?”

“What?” Aaron asked, giving Seth a slightly confused look. Sure, what he’d said was maybe a little out of the blue and he needed to explain it some, but he had hoped that it would be something that could be guessed at from the context. Sometimes not everyone followed Seth’s thought processes though, the only person who ever did was Kendra. Another reason that his crush had never quite ended.

So explain he would, and he knew that Aaron wouldn’t be able to argue with it. “Everyone only gets so many, right. We’re both in our thirties and neither of us have settled down. I don’t even remember your last committed relationship.” It had been long before the bombing. In fact Seth thought it had ended during Richmond’s first campaign, the one they’d met on.

“Disappointingly neither do I.” There was a tone of resignation in Aaron’s tone, and Seth just smirked a little. There was a little bit of male pride in that he had the more recent relationship. Though he didn’t want to take that too far, especially given that this could all go disastrously.

“Alright. I have an idea.” Seth said, just going with the idea rather than putting it off. This was going to be something to at least try and break their terrible luck with relationships. Even if it didn’t work out at least they had both taken the plunge. “I ask out Kendra, you ask out Hannah. We can double date.” It seemed like the perfect idea to him. They all knew each other, if it was going terribly they could always just leave the table as friends.

Aaron narrowed his eyes and shook his head, clearly not thinking it was as good an idea as Seth did. “Two first dates as a double date?” That was actually probably a good point. It seemed like they were thinking that they would immediately be terrible dates and had made sure they had a get-out clause. There was also the worry the only conversation would be about work, and that wasn’t what either of them would be wanting.

“Alright fine that’s not a good idea.” Seth thought a little longer, following Aaron through the White House but keeping his voice quiet enough that the conversation was private. “We should try and have the dates at the same time though. Saturday at 7?” Assuming that nothing came up they could all expect to have the time.

“What if Kendra or Hannah is busy?” Aaron asked, seemingly trying to throw a wrench in his plan. Seth wanted to poke him until he agreed but thought that maybe that would be just a little bit too childish. Seth just knew that this was a good idea, he knew that there needed to be something to push them both into it. A little friendly competition was surely the way to do it.

“We ask them to be not busy.” Seth didn’t really have any other answer to his question that that. All they could do was ask. No matter the answer at least they both knew that they had tried and sometimes that was the most important part of dating. It wasn’t so much in the fact that they were actually dating, but more that they had asked.

“Has anyone pointed out that you really don’t think these ideas through.” Aaron laughed, closing the door to his office behind them then sighing and dropping into one of the chairs. Seth was too animated to sit, and he felt like he still needed to be moving. He definitely didn’t want to be sitting right now.

“Come on Aaron.” Seth cajoled, hoping that it would be enough to convince his friend to just give it a chance. There wasn’t a terrible downside to any of this. It was a question, something that could be dealt with. “Let’s try and do it. The worst that can happen is that we get turned down.” Seth couldn’t see a worse downside than them.

“Alright. Sure. You ask Kendra out and I’ll ask Hannah.” Aaron was resigned to the fact that Seth wasn’t going to let this idea go now, but he honestly thought that it was a fantastic idea and it definitely made him want to take the bull by the horns and ask Kendra to dinner. That was going to mean getting her alone though.

Of course, they had made this deal on one of her busiest days and Seth had to run around to even find out where she was. When he did he just blurted it out, and it was probably one of the worst date requests that she’d ever gotten. Much to Seth’s surprise, however, she’d just patted his cheek fondly and said that she’d been waiting for him to ask her. Nothing had ever made him feel more confident than hearing those words out of the woman he’d had a crush on for months.

Once he’d come down from the clouds after asking her he sought out Aaron. Finding his friend in the mess he just grinned and walked over, not giving any indication what he was doing he just bent down to whisper one simple thing straight into Aaron’s ear. “Boo-yah.”

“Wait, what?” Aaron almost jumped out of his seat while Seth slid into his with a smirk. There was definitely a greater pride in telling Aaron that he had successfully arranged a date with Kendra Daynes than the shy pride about the fact he’d actually had a more recent relationship.

“I asked her out.” He nodded enthusiastically, watching as Aaron’s jaw dropped. Seth realised that maybe, just maybe, Aaron hadn’t thought that he would actually ask Kendra out, especially not so quickly. When he’d had a competition to do it though he did it. “Kendra. She was free on Saturday night. So now it’s over to you.”

“If I just killed you in your sleep I could claim it as a win, right?” Aaron grumbled, sitting back a little and staring at the plate of beans and salad and whatever else it was that he’d been picking at.

“No. Man just do it.” Seth pressed him. There was no better feeling than he had felt when he’d done it and got a great response. He knew that Hannah would have a similar response. There were other things for Aaron and Hannah to work out for sure but that didn’t matter. “Kendra actually said she’d been waiting to see if I ask her out. It’ll be worth it.”

“I can’t let you show me up, but this is terrifying.” Aaron grumbled, and Seth looked up as Hannah actually walked into the mess too, talking with the computer guy that she always worked with. Seth had never actually met him, though he felt like he should eventually say a hello. That wasn’t going to be today though. “I’m not sure there is anything more terrifying than this.

“You were held hostage a month ago!” Seth yelped. Somehow he couldn’t imagine that asking someone out for a dinner date would ever be more terrifying than that, but of course, Seth hadn’t been in that situation and he had still procrastinated on asking Kendra on a date so long that he’d actually _dated someone else_ to avoid doing it.

“This is scarier.” Aaron dropped his head then took in a deep breath and went to push himself to standing, his eyes once again focused on Hannah’s back as she looked at whatever food was being offered this evening. “Alright. I’m going to do it now.”

“Text me later. I’m going home before Emily finds something else for me to do.” Seth really just wanted to escape and decide where he was going to take Kendra and just make plans for Saturday. He was already so excited about this that he couldn’t really think about anything else.

Leaving Aaron to ask his date out, then mostly arranging everything through texts made the next few days pass quickly, and before Seth knew it his date came and went, and he had a fantastic time. In fact, neither he nor Kendra had wanted to end it, and it had led to them going back to watch a movie at her place. Seth had never been on a date that he just never wanted to end before, but here he was. He woke up to the sound of his phone, but he had been asleep on Kendra’s sofa, and she was still sound asleep on his chest.

The ringing stopped and he just allowed himself to enjoy a few more minutes here before he moved Kendra gently, laying her on the sofa softly as he slid out and grabbed his phone, stepping into the bathroom and calling Aaron back. This could only be about the dates, and Seth didn’t know how to answer this without letting Kendra know that they had both planned something.

“ _How did it go?_ ”

Aaron’s question the minute the call connected made Seth wince and speak quietly. He didn’t want to wake Kendra, or have her overhear if she had already woken up. “Dude I’m in Kendra’s bathroom I have to speak quietly.”

“ _Wait you’re already at her place?_ ”

“We fell asleep on the sofa.” He smiled at the memory of them just flicking through any film that Netflix had recommended while talking and cuddling. That had also been a welcome change from… well in truth from his last few relationships. Rarely had he been with someone who had enjoyed sitting and cuddling as much as he had. “Nothing happened, we just came back and watched a movie and fell asleep.”

“ _I hate that you two are already that cute._ ”

“Cute?” Seth asked, not really sure that he could agree to the idea that it was cute. Though, he would say that Kendra had looked cute when he woke up that morning. He thought she always looked cute though, she was beautiful. He didn’t know what Aaron was thinking was cute though.

“ _Curling up and falling asleep on the sofa without even having sex is like… this cute old married couple thing._ _Hannah and I are going out again tomorrow night._ ”

Seth actually liked the idea that he and Kendra had already fallen into something that said ‘domesticity’ to someone who had such a strong grounding in families and old married couples as Aaron. Seth was also happy to hear that Aaron’s date had gone well enough that he and Hannah were planning on having another and so soon. “So we both made a good choice?”

“Seth, you in the bathroom? _”_ He heard from the other side of the door, and he guessed that Kendra was there and probably that she needed the bathroom herself given that she’d only just woken up. Seth smiled to himself again, remembering how adorable he’d thought she was when she’d been asleep. “Come on babe I really need it.” _Babe_. He could get used to hearing her calling him that.

“I’ll be out in a minute Ken.” He said a little louder, letting her know that he was actually there. “Gotta go.” He grinned and hung up before saying anything more. He then stepped right out and took the opportunity of Kendra being stood right there to give her a gentle kiss before stepping away. The bet may have been just trying to break the gridlock they’d both had when it came to dating, but maybe in the end it was so much more than that. Seth was excited to find out if it was anyway, for them all.


End file.
